Broken
by Master of Chronicles
Summary: If Qrow is about to face one of the worst nights of his life, he might as well do it drunk. After all, some things just can't be fixed.


**Written for a themed contest of DeviantArt.**

 **This one gave me a lot of trouble. I knew what I wanted to say and even how to say it, but it took weeks to finally nail down. Though not very long, this one short has given me alot to think about as far as how to tell a story. Okay, enough about that.**

 **Thanks for coming and please review and let me know your thoughts!**

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Broken

"Good to see you here on Patch again, Qrow." A middle-aged Faunus bartender said to the Hunstman sitting at one of the many empty stools at the bar.

Qrow Branwen, who had been busy losing his sobriety, lazily raised his head to look at the man speaking to him, squinting to help his eyes focus. "Sorry...who are you?"

The bearded Faunus' thick eyebrows rose in surprise. "Zerrin. You've come to my bar many times."

"Right..." Qrow was deep into his fourth shot of the night and wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. The background noises of the other people in the joint had already begun to sound distant and muffled to him. "I'll take another round, Zorro-"

"Zerrin."

"-And leave the bottle. I'm expecting company." The Huntsman said, sighing heavily.

"A hot date?" The blond bartender guessed, pulling out a new bottle of whiskey from his shelves and slid it over to Qrow.

"Ha!" Qrow chuckled, taking his fifth shot. "If that was the case, then what's about to happen would be a whole lot easier to deal with."

Zerrin frowned. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"I lost someone recently. Someone really close." Qrow explained solemnly.

"Oh...I'm sorry." Zerrin offered.

"Yeah, well, that was out of my hands. There was nothing anyone could do about it. However, tonight will be different. I'm about to lose someone else, only this time it will be by choice." Branwen swallowed his next shot, feeling it burn all the way down. "And it's really going to _**suck**_."

"Maybe it won't be so bad." The bartender said, trying to sound cheerful.

Qrow's eyes were drawn to the entrance as the person he had been waiting for walked in through the wooden doors. "Yeah...maybe..."

Wearing her shallow cut black dress and red girdle-belt, Raven Branwen stood out in the bar like a wolf amongst sheep. Her deep red gaze seemed to cut into anything it looked at, and it was zeroed in on Qrow. She approached the bar and took a seat, glancing at the label of the bottle her brother was drinking from as she detached her sword case from her belt and leaned it against the counter.

"Bottom shelf stuff again. You always did have low self-esteem, Qrow." Raven remarked.

"Bottom shelf?" Zerrin repeated indignantly.

"Is this the part where I say 'Nice to see you too, sis'?" Qrow raised his glass mockingly. "Want some?"

"No. I'll take water." Raven said, looking at the bartender. "In a clean glass, if you can find one."

Despite the insults, Zerrin managed to pull out one on his best mugs, fill it with cool water and handed it to Raven without throwing it in her face.

"If you'll excuse me," The Faunus said with stiff politeness, "I have other costumers to attend to."

With that the man was gone, leaving twins Qrow and Raven alone with their drinks. Raven took one sip of her water and put it down in disgust, whereas Qrow polished off two more shots.

"Why did you send for me, Qrow? I don't want to be on this island one minute longer than I have to, so..."

"You remember our first summer at Beacon?" Qrow interrupted, refilling his glass. "We would sneak out after dark and hit the town, always keeping an eye out for cranky Mrs. Goose who had a habit of patrolling Vale at night, trying to catch any disobedient students."

"Yes. I remember." Raven admitted, impatience souring her tone.

"And there was that time when Summer was the only one in our group who got caught and had to do two weeks of detention, remember? She would've done only one, but she refused to rat out her teammates." Qrow smiled at the memory.

Raven let out a frustrated sigh. "Yes, I remember that too."

"Oh really?" Qrow asked, turning his head towards his sister. "You remember Summer, do you?"

"Of course I do." Raven answered, fully irritated.

Suddenly the Huntsman's face got red with anger, "Then why weren't you at her **FUNERAL!?** "

Sightly taken aback, Raven stared harshly at her brother. "You know I had important things to take care of..."

"More important than saying goodbye to a friend, a _good_ and _close_ friend who picked up your slack and was raising _**your**_ daughter?!"

"Yes!" Raven answered.

"That's bull!" He shot back.

"Maybe if you actually had responsibilities in your life, you would understand!" Raven retorted.

All Qrow could do was stare in bewilderment, a hundred different things he wanted to shout running through his mind, but none of them made it out of his mouth. Finally he said, "H-how do you live with yourself?"

"My own way." Raven said sternly. "And if you think I'm going to let a drunken slob tell me off-"

"Oh, we both agree on that, sis." Qrow replied, cutting her off. "I'm the last guy in all of Remnant to be giving lectures about how to be a good person, but guess what? I was the only one there that night, sitting across the table from Tai as he cried over Summer. Wanna know what he told me? He said 'She's gone, Qrow. Now both my little girls have broken hearts.'"

No longer bothering with his shot-glass anymore, Qrow reached over and grabbed the whiskey bottle, bringing it to his lips and taking a long, hard gulp. He didn't even wipe his mouth when his was done. "The hard part, the real killer, was that somewhere deep down I actually hoped that you would reach out, to least show your own kid that you were out there, thinking of her. But it seems I'm at my most stupid when I'm sober."

Qrow put the bottle down with a thud and let his shoulders wearily drop. The bar was completely silent save for an old jukebox playing outdated music in the back corner. Even Zerrin had stopped serving his customers.

"Are you done?" Raven said as she smoothly stepped off the stool, grabbing her gear.

"...What?" Qrow said in a very low voice.

"There are more important things that need to be taken care of than personal matters, and I am not going to explain myself to someone who has turned his back on his real family." The young woman said as she attached her large, rotatable sword case to her hip.

"Am...am I done?" Qrow echoed, his face reflecting the disbelief in his voice.

"We live separate lives now. It doesn't matter if you don't like the choices I've made, you will respect them." Raven gave her brother a harsh look. "Don't bother me about this again."

Qrow's twin sister was almost out the door when he moved out of his seat, rushing after her. "Hey, I'm not done!"

It was dark out, with only a few streetlamps giving off enough light to help pedestrians make out the shapes of houses and the cobblestone streets. Qrow barely felt the cold as he hurried toward Raven, who had drawn her great sword and was in the midst of creating her red and black energy portal. Grabbing hold his blade, Qrow struck hard in an upwards arc, knocking Raven's weapon out of her hands, collapsing the portal.

"I said we're not finished!" Qrow yelled.

By the time he realized Raven had kicked him, he was already spinning in the air, the left side of his face marked with her boot. Qrow managed to land on his feet, albeit shakily, and glared as Raven retrieved her sword off the ground and leveled it at him.

"Back off!" She warned. "There's nothing I want to hear from you-"

"Yang almost died today!" Qrow blurted out.

For the first time that night, Raven hesitated. "W-what?"

"Your ten year-old girl, sad and desperate, decided to take her little sister in a wagon and go look for you! They were in the Gray Forest when I found them, surrounded by Grimm, tired, helpless and afraid! Yang kept crying 'Mommy, mommy, help me!' And. You. Weren't. THERE!"

Raven slowly lowered her blade, her widened eyes the only indicator she was shocked. "I...I didn't know..."

"Of course you didn't!" Qrow exclaimed. "How could you when you're halfway around the world? Your own flesh and blood and you treat her worse than the dirt you walk on!"

"Where was Tai?" Raven demanded. "Why wasn't he watching the girls?"

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say out working to support his family as a single father! But what do I know? I'm just a drunken slob!"

A heavy silence fell as the two Hunters stared at each other, Raven entirely immobile, whereas Qrow was heaving for breath from his outburst. Overhead the broken moon was shining brightly right alongside the stars, but neither of the Branwens noticed the beauty surrounding them. Their lives were far too messed up for them to appreciate such things anymore.

"I called you here because you need to understand the consequences of what you've done," Qrow continued, his voice hoarse from shouting. "And not just to me or Tai, but Yang and Summer's little girl too. Knowing this, are you going to continue to turn you back, or are you finally going to find it within your heart to do something?"

"Like I said before," Raven said after a few seconds, "I've made my choice."

Turning back around, Raven raised sword and sliced open her dark portal, stepping into it. However, just before disappearing entirely, she looked back at Qrow. "At a time and place of my choosing, I will be there for my girl. But I will only do this once. If Yang can't stand on her own, then she shouldn't stand at all."

And with that, she was gone.

Letting out a deep sigh, Qrow rubbed his tired eyes. "Better than nothing, I guess."

When he reentered the bar a few moments later, everyone was quiet, pretending to mind their own business as they watched the Huntsman head back to the counter where the bartender was waiting.

"Time I head out, Zorro." Qrow said softly, groggily reaching for his wallet in his back pocket.

"It's Zer...oh, never mind."

"How much do I owe?"

"No need to pay for anything. Consider it on the house." Zerrin said, grabbing the bottle Qrow had been drinking from the entire night.

"...Thanks..."

"No problem. Anything else I can do for you?" The Faunus asked.

"Yeah, there is." Qrow pulled his hip flask out of his other back pocket. "Fill this up for me?"

"Sure." Zerrin said, taking the bottle and emptying what little whiskey was left in the flask. As he handed the flask back, the man said, "I know it's bad now, but it will get better. Life has a way of fixing itself."

Taking a swig out of his newly filled flask, Qrow gave a defeated shrug. "Maybe. But in my experience, things that break can never really be put together again. Goodnight, Zerrin."

The bartender smiled warmly, "Goodnight, Qrow."

With that the Huntsman left, ending another night he sorely wished he could forget altogether...

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 **Thank you very much for reading! If anyone of you happen to be the ones following me for my previous unfinished fics, I am very sorry I've been dormant so long. I write for contests these days (because, you know, benefits) but I am still working on...all those other ones, even if they're very slow going. Again, I am very sorry.**

 **I am currently focusing most on my RWBY OC team PERL, which I am taking very seriously since they are mine and I get to do whatever I want with them while still having fun with the RWBYverse and its characters. Thought I know most people don't really care for OCs, I ask that you given them a chance and check them out!  
**

 **See you around!**


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